It has been a season of learning for the Pirates, who have won three games, one shy of tying the program high. Cinnaminson had an opportunity to tie that number on Wednesday against Moorestown Friends, but fell by a score of 7-6.
“We played, we competed, I thought we played well. I couldn’t be more proud of my guys,” head coach Craig Angelini said.
The Pirates have one more shot at grabbing a fourth victory when they host Lower Cape May on Thursday for their final game of the season.
Moorestown Friends scored two minutes into the game for the opening goal of the game, but the Pirates answered less than two minutes later to tie when Mike O’Brien got on the board.
Tom Schlindwein gave the Pirates their first lead of the game before the first quarter came to an end. Then, with just a little over four minutes left in the second, Ryan Bleistine scored for a 3-1 lead, which they held at halftime.
Cinnaminson would allow a Moorestown Friends goal early in the third quarter before Alex Artur scored for a 4-2 lead. Moorestown Friends would then score the next three goals to take a 5-4 lead over the Pirates after three quarters as the Pirates had six straight penalties called against them.
“It’s a shame that the refs determined the outcome today,” Angelini said. “I’m not saying that they weren’t penalties, but there were other penalties in the game that weren’t called. I think we played awesome. I think Moorestown Friends played awesome. It was a fun game to watch.”
The game-tying goal came with 35 seconds left in the third and the go-ahead goal came with 14.6 seconds left in the third quarter.
The score would remain 5-4 until there was 2:10 left in the fourth, which is when Artur scored his second of the game to tie it at 5 apiece.
With exactly one minute left, Moorestown Friends took at 6-5 lead, but Bleistine had other plans. He scored with 15 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime.
“Mentally it’s difficult to bounce back from six calls in a row on you, especially when three or four of them were pretty soft calls,” Angelini said. “Mentally, I was very proud that there was only a momentary lapse in energy from our guys and then we pushed on. We pushed the game to overtime and we had our chances, but they’re a very good team. Both teams played great. We just didn’t come out on top.”
Moorestown Friends would win the game with 2:27 left in overtime.
The Pirates are now 3-12 on the season. They play their season finale at home on Thursday against Lower Cape May at 4pm.
[…] The win on senior night snapped a 10-game losing streak for the Pirates, who almost picked up a fourth victory in the second-t0-last game of the year against Moorestown Friends. The Pirates led 3-1 at halftime and 4-2 late in the third quarter before falling 7-6 in overtime. […]